Weekends

Ft. Worth 2018

Every year, I really feel like one of the true starts to the Christmas season is the trip to Ft. Worth. Since the hubs and I have been together, we’ve been able to attend Fort Worth and the NCHA Futurity every year. This year was no different.

Thursday night we headed out after everyone got off work. We made it as far as Dennison, TX, before calling it a night. The next morning, we woke up and off to Fort Worth we headed. Before we left the hotel though, we grabbed breakfast. Abug did her own hair for Breakfast. Who is to argue with a 4-year-old?

Then we were off. As we got closer to Ft. Worth, we dealt with more rain. Usually, we have to rent a vehicle to haul all of us. This year we had a white Ford Expedition. On the lot, they had a Chevy Suburban, but we thought we’d like the Ford better. After getting home, we weren’t sure if we wouldn’t have liked the Suburban better? Possibly more cargo room… but I guess one will never know. (more…)

Holiday Home Tour… Wait, What??

Everyone is all talking about Christmas and Holiday Home Tours and I’m over here like wait, WHAT?!?! I want to do that. Oh, wait… I can’t. Why? Well, look above. Do you know what you’re looking at? If not, I’ll tell you… It’s my open concept bathroom/Kitchen. Why put a wall between when you can make them one and take a shower while stirring something on the stove, right?

I’m kidding… sort of… I’ll explain. Right here on the left side of the wall (look for the shovel leaning up against the wall on the right side…) you really are looking into the kitchen and bathroom. And there really is no wall separating the two. They always say be prepared if you plan on doing something like this because you don’t know what you’re going to find. Well, what we found was there was a leak for what appeared to be YEARS in the bathroom where the bathtub/shower combo was and the floor was rotted. In fact, the wall behind where the window is was rotted all the way through and you can actually see the back side of the siding through the house. That’s not normal. Nope, not normal at all. (more…)

Thanksgiving 2018

And just like that, Thanksgiving is over.  I saw a meme the other day that I actually saw a year ago… something about spending 10 hours cooking for it to be gone in 30 minutes and then spending 5 hours cleaning up or something. haha. But that’s kind of the fun in Thanksgiving!

It’s also funny how short weeks feel the longest sometimes. Thanksgiving is always the 3rd Thursday of November. And that week, every year feels so long! Probably because of the anticipation of what is to come that week. That’s what I’m going with anyway!

This year, we had plans to leave Tuesday after Abug got out of school to head to my aunt and uncle’s house in Oklahoma. I love when we get to go see them. I have a pretty small family as is, so when we don’t get to see each other on holidays it makes it feel so weird. Weird is the only word I can see to describe it. My family did get bigger when I married my husband, but still… unfortunately they don’t care for me very much so I’ve heard. I get blamed for things that are out of my control and that sucks. But my husband, he’s my rock. He loves me and that’s what matters!

Anyway, Tbug couldn’t come down with us because she had a dentist appointment on Wednesday. My parents weren’t able to come down until Wednesday night so they brought her with them. It was a big happy family!! (more…)

Wonder Woman Cupcake Cake

I didn’t leave you hanging! I told you yesterday with the Wonder Woman Cookies that I had a Wonder Woman Cupcake Cake post coming up and here it is! Yey, go me, go me, it’s my birthday, we’re going to party like it’s my birthday.

Please tell me you kind of know the song I was just referencing. I mean I totally botched it up and all but please tell me I’m not THAT old. I was singing that around a kid here recently. By kid, she’s an early teen. I think maybe 8th or 9th grade this year. She looked at me straight-faced and said, it’s not my birthday. Yes, yes I know… it’s a song. Sigh. I tried then to explain the song and yeah, it was lost on deaf ears I think. Sad day! I’m the “old” person in the room. In my life, I usually am the youngest of the group of people I run around with. I’m kind of used to it…

But… let’s not focus on that… let’s focus on the fact that I made a Wonder Woman Birthday Cupcake Cake for my friend Jody’s daughter. Oh who by the way, Jody is younger than me. WHAT? Yup, I show my age there too, but I’m only a couple years older… I think ;). Shhhhh, don’t tell, please! (more…)

Wonder Woman Sugar Cookies

Seems like here lately all I’ve been doing is cakes… and I won’t lie… I kind of like doing those these days. There was a while that I hated decorating cakes but sometime last year I found that love and this year I’ve honed in on that love. In fact, right now as I type this I have cakes in the oven baking. Ooooo are you excited to find out what is in the oven? Don’t worry, I’ll share… eventually.

Heck, these cookies are from a couple weekends ago. LIfe has been crazy lately. A lot of ups and downs and more downs but there are ups too. It’s that roller coaster ride thing. It would be easy some days to throw your hands up in the air and say, I’m done… But… I’m not done. Not yet. I’m just holding on and screaming my head off. Think roller coaster rides of course. I always compare life to a roller coaster ride. I love roller coasters but the older I get the more they scare the crap out of me for some reason.

More on that thought real quick… I guess when I was just barely tall enough to ride the roller coasters at Worlds of Fun in Kansas City, I used to cry because they wouldn’t let me ride while other people used to cry that they didn’t want to ride them. Now I get to call this thing called the roller coaster of life. haha.

Okay, back to the cookies… (more…)

Cinnamon Roll Birthday Cake

Guys, I truly believe this! My dad’s birthday is today. In all the world I couldn’t have asked for a better daddy! I know a lot of people say that, but gosh it’s true. I’m sitting here writing this while watching last night’s Dancing with the Stars which was a turning point in all their lives. I don’t know if the tears streaming down my face are because of my daddy or those stories… Truthfully it could be both. My daddy is the absolute best daddy a girl could have. I’ve always been a daddy’s girl. And I just want to wish my daddy the absolute best day he could possibly have.

So as most of you know… or maybe you don’t so I’ll tell you now… I’ve spent this year falling back in love with making cakes. Beautiful cakes. Cakes for every occasion I can. So of course, my dad’s birthday would be no different. I went through a lot of different recipes trying to find the absolute BEST recipe for my dad. That’s when I stumbled across a recipe for a Birthday Cinnamon Roll Cake. WHAT? I should inform you now that my dad loves cinnamon rolls so it’s perfect, right? (more…)

Courtyard by Marriott – Clarksville, TN

Do you remember that my husband was military? Army in fact. A long time ago. Long before I was in the picture, but kind of not really. I was in the picture in high school, then I was out, and now I’m back again. Okay, anyway, moving on.

When you’re in the army, you form a brotherhood. You get brothers and sisters who have your back and they have yours. Why? Because you guys are all joining together to do one thing, defend our country and our freedoms. My husband has a couple guys who have served that purpose for him. And two of them happen to be twins. Isn’t that fun? I can also mention that in the last 2 weeks I have seen both of them… and they both live in different places.

One has recently moved about an hour from us while the other still lives at the Army base in Oak Grove, Kentucky/Ft. Campbell. If you ask my husband, that area is called Tuckasee because you are on the Kentucky/Tennessee border. In fact, the army base is in both states, it just registers as Kentucky because that’s the side the post office is on.

Anyway, I might be getting a little off topic. It happens. A couple weeks ago we headed to Metropolis, Illinois to go SCUBA diving. One of my husband’s brothers is sick. He could use all the prayers he can get, trust me! But being in Metropolis, we were only 2 hours from seeing him if that… so we schemed with his wife behind his back to show up on his doorstep to see him.

In fact, I thought it would be fun to send him random text messages of his house to show we were there. The silly guy was playing WOW so he wasn’t paying attention to his phone very much and Krissy had to make him look.

Clarksville, Tennessee

There really isn’t anywhere to stay in Oak Grove, so we went across the line into Tennessee for a hotel. Tim’s exit is 89. There are 94 in Kentucky and then you cross over the line. We went to exit 4. (more…)

Mudslide Cake (It’s a Birthday Thang!)

Today is my Mother-in-Law’s birthday. Happy Birthday, Memaw. Yes, we all call her Memaw which confuses some people. There’s actually a little confusion that goes along with that.

  1. My mother-in-law (MIL) was 35 when she had my husband. She was an “older” mom just like my mom was. (My mom was 28 for her first and only). When we all call her Memaw, people sometimes confuse her for being my husband’s grandma. I’m not totally sure why because I don’t think that’s possible!
  2. We all call her Memaw so when people call her by her real name, they don’t know who we’re talking about.

This year, we’ve been attempting to get together with my husband’s family at least once a month. It hasn’t totally happened, but we’ve tried. We just get together, have dinner, and play games. I think we’ve missed a couple months, but at least we’re trying. Family is important.

Last month (August) we got together the last weekend of the month to celebrate Memaw’s birthday. I guess I (hubby and I really) forgot we had Tbug Labor Day weekend (note to self… every even year we have her :)), so we wanted to get together to celebrate Memaw’s birthday when she (Tbug) was around. We won’t be in town the next weekend we have Tbug, so it seemed like we’d celebrate early instead of late.

Now if there’s another thing I can tell you about my MIL, she loves a good Mudslide. So with my Cake excursions this year, I went in search of a good Mudslide recipe. When I didn’t find what I wanted, I set out to make my own. And that’s just what I did. I made a Mudslide Cake in honor of my MIL. (more…)

Kansas City: Where We Stayed, Where We Ate, What We Did

Wow, it’s been quite a while since we actually went to Kansas City, but still, it’s worth mentioning.

Last month we made a weekend trip, actually just an overnight trip to Kansas City. The goal was to go to the Farmer’s Market and get Jalapeños. I know that sounds funny, but hubby makes these things called candied jalapeños and the best place to get bulk jalapeños at a decent price is the City Market in Kansas City. Gosh, I love that place. The first time we went, I wound up buying 20 pounds of jalapeños. This time we only bought 15 pounds. haha. You still get just as many weird looks buying 5 pounds fewer jalapeños.

But, because we went, we decided to make it a weekend trip. This summer’s goal has been to Have Fun!

Where We Stayed

4600 Summit St. Kansas City, MO

We stayed at the Hampton Inn & Suites Kansas City Country Club Plaza. (more…)

Chuy’s – Rogers, AR

What is the significance of this picture? To prove that hubby was HOME! Wait, what?

Let’s back up… So 2 weeks ago hubby was in Boston for work. He was supposed to be home Friday, August 3, 2018. I state “was” because his flight got canceled as did every flight Delta had that night within a 150-mile radius of Boston. There was some storm and instead of postponing like Southwest Airlines did, Delta just canceled and apparently that’s what they always do. UGH!

Why did I really care? Well because Sunday, August 5th we were supposed to be leaving on vacation. Nothing like waiting until the last minute, right? So hubby and his co-worker who were traveling together looked into multiple routes to get home and both didn’t get home until Sunday. Hubby left out of KCI (Kansas City) and finally found a flight into XNA (Northwest Arkansas) at noon on Sunday. His co-worker got home Sunday at 4 pm into KCI.

Hubby was looking for every route to get home on Saturday and couldn’t do it. Our plans included us leaving between 5 and 6 on Sunday evening. It was a fuster cluck. With him rerouted through XNA, my parents and I drove up to KCI to get his truck because that’s a 2ish hour trip. Then Sunday morning we headed to XNA to pick him up and bring him home, quickly do laundry, finish packing him, and leave here on time. It was stressful! But we accomplished it, even with eating lunch at Chuy’s Tex-Mex.

Chuy’s Tex-Mex – Rogers AR

Chuy’s actually originated in the early 80’s in Austin, Texas. For what feels like months, our friend Jared has been telling us we needed to try this restaurant. A week earlier my parents tried this restaurant and raved about it too. So when they found out we were going to XNA, he suggested going with us and we could try Chuy’s. They raved about it so much they said we needed to find one in San Antonio (which there are like 3 or 4 locations). (more…)